Now, there are some gifts that you would never want to take to the return desk or stuff into a closet with the idea of writing somebody else’s name on the tag and “repurposing” it next holiday season.

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians comes to mind as such a pleasant surprise.

Come to think of it, if you gave him a snowy-white beard and a thick, white wig, Arians would look remarkably like a certain gift-giving old elf, only with a Kangol cap.

In the spirit of regiving, though, we rummaged around and dug up some of the the gifts that Arians has delivered since he was hired as the Cardinals head coach almost a year ago so that we can pass them along now.

Admit it, though, when Arians first handed out some of these, you rolled your eyes as if you’d just unwrapped a Squatty Potty. Who knew at the time that Arians was passing out such precious gifts?

“I never lay up. I hit a lot of balls in the water. That’s the way I coach. That’s the way I live,” Arians offered at his introductory news conference.

“I don’t know if there’s another (chance) coming. I don’t want to go to bed tonight knowing I missed something or I didn’t take a chance on hitting a great shot.”

Well, when Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, in the midst of a miserable day, lofted a bomb to Michael Floyd just when it looked as if the Cardinals were positioning Jay Feely for a long field goal, leaving the Seattle Seahawks shell-shocked?

It didn’t happen overnight, but after a 3-4 start, the Cardinals have a chance to go 8-1 in their final nine games because they have taken on that very identity.

“We’re going to work hard and they’re going to be accountable. Not to me, to each other,” Arians said of his players. “It’s not my football team. Our players decide how good they’re going to be. It’s their football team.

“If they want to win, we’ll win. I’ll show them the way. I’m not a magic man. Never tried to be.”

Arians has worked the Cardinals hard. And there is his now famous “accountability sheet” that describes every mistake made in practices or games, with no player too big to escape his biting commentary.

It may not be magic, but it has worked. And it has made Arians a legitimate candidate to become the first NFL Coach of the Year with two different clubs in back-to-back years.

“I embrace this challenge. I can’t wait to get started. We’re going to have a great coaching staff, and we’re going to have a great team,” he said.

Man, who didn’t wonder if Arians had made a huge mistake when he didn’t retain Ray Horton as defensive coordinator and brought in Todd Bowles instead? Now, he may lose Bowles to another NFL team looking for a head coach because Bowles has done such a terrific job.

“They did a good job last year in a lot of areas, but I think we'll be better against the run,” Arians boldly said of the Cardinals defense during training camp.

Sure enough, the Achilles’ heel of the Cardinals defense a year ago — their 22nd-ranked run defense — became the sinewy cable that gave it strength this season.

After bottling up Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, the Cardinals now have the top-ranked run defense in the NFL, yielding just 84.5 yards per game. As a result, the Cardinals rank sixth in total defense — up from their No. 12 ranking last season.

“The way it’s happening now in the National Football League, it’s not hard to turn around,” Arians said when he inherited a team coming off a 5-11 season and that had not had a winning season since 2009. “It’s just a belief factor. You’ve got to have some luck. If you have a common cause and a locker room bond and truly believe in each other, you’ve got a chance every week.”

Even, as it turns out, in Seattle.

“Again, I’m going to reach out to our great fans,” Arians said when asked how he would engineer such a dramatic turnabout. “We’ve got a great home stadium, and nobody is going to beat us here. That’s eight wins.”

Well, he didn’t quite deliver that gift.

But if the Cardinals can beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium, they will finish the season 7-1 at home. Only New Orleans, which plays host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the same time, has the potential to go 8-0 at home in the NFC.

And should the Cardinals win and Saints slip up, with a hand from those little helpers in Buccaneers uniforms, then Arians would deliver one last unexpected gift.

The playoffs.

Reach Young at 602-444-8271 or bob.young@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobYoungTHI.

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

Join the conversation! To comment on azcentral.com, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. You are responsible for your comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.